Friday, January 2, 2015

Sadie and Sammy wanted Brody's glasses so we gave them sunglasses instead.

We recently found out that Brody has Amblyopia. It basically means that one of his eyes is strong (20/20 vision) and the other eye is not (20/100 vision). The eye with poor vision then "turns off" and becomes amblyopic, more commonly called lazy eye. This kind of lazy eye is actually hard to recognize because with both eyes open Brody didn't even realize the one eye was blurry. Also, his eyes are not crossed or misaligned.That is why it is SO important to have your kids eyes checked regularly at their annual wellness visits.

How do you fix Amblyopia?
The good news is, that we caught this early! If we would have found this out a few years down the road there wouldn't be a whole lot we could do to fix this problem. Because Brody is so young his ophthalmologist believes we can get Brody's amblyopic eye to 20/25. He will start out by wearing glasses to help strengthen the weak eye and then will most likely have to wear an eye patch over the strong eye to also help strengthen the weak eye.

Brody was so excited to get glasses and he even thinks wearing an eye patch will be cool. He will only have to wear it a few hours a day but he wants to make sure it's during school so the other kids can see. Funny kid!

Amblyopia can be inherited so if you have any relation that has it make sure to have your children checked, even if it is a distant relation. The visual system is usually fully developed by nine years old and usually can not be changed so make sure your kids are getting a visual screening at their annual wellness visits.